Rafter Raises a Glass, Then Ousts Courier

There are signs that young Patrick Rafter, only 21 and already ranked 49th in the world, is quickly catching on to the formula for being a truly great Australian tennis player.

First, he served and volleyed and beat one of the top players in the game in the Newsweek Champions Cup, ousting defending champion Jim Courier Tuesday in a 1 1/2-hour first-rounder, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.

Then, afterward, he described his prematch preparation as follows: “I came in here pretty low. All I did the last three weeks was lose in the first round in singles and doubles. So I decided to come here, just kind of stuff it, relax and have a beer.”

Clearly, an Australian star is brewing.

In the stands, watching Rafter put Courier on ice, were a couple of Aussie past-masters of tennis and tall cool ones, Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver. From that pair, along with the likes of John Newcombe, Tony Roche and Fred Stolle, comes a tradition of excellence in quickness to the net and to the keg. The Aussies have been winners who have always had a barrel of fun. Literally.

When Rafter had some bad moments against an always-battling Courier, all he had to do was glance up into the stands for moral support. Locating Rosewall and Laver might have been made easier by simply looking for the sun reflecting off metal cans.

“Muscles and Rocket,” he said. “Good to know those guys are there watching. Those are two of the greatest players ever. I think you’ll see the Aussies come up on top again soon.”

There would be no argument on that from Courier, the still-struggling No. 3 player in the world, who summed it all up pretty well afterward.

“Patrick played a good match and served very well,” Courier said. “Other than that, it’s all he had to do.”

The implication was that Courier didn’t do much of anything very well, and that made him the exception on a day when all the other seeded players, including No. 1 Pete Sampras and comeback-bound Andre Agassi, advanced.

“I just didn’t strike the ball well,” Courier said. “The match seemed to go much quicker than I wanted it to. I wasn’t able to work myself into it like I like to.”

Sampras, No. 1 in the world, had no such trouble working himself into his match with veteran Spaniard Emilio Sanchez. He came out slugging, and 1 hour 1 minute later was still firing bullet serves and bullet passing shots and even bullet volleys at a completed overwhelmed Sanchez. The score was 6-1, 6-1. Sanchez said, “He destroyed me.”

Sampras fired seven aces at Sanchez, hit 36 winners, won 90% of the points played when he got his first serve in and 80% of the points played when he came to the net.

“I wish this could happen everyday,” Sampras said, “but unfortunately, it can’t.”

Agassi went through Richey Reneberg in the night session, 6-3, 6-3, which was not surprising, despite Agassi’s drop from top-10 status to No. 31 while sitting out with a wrist injury that required surgery late last year.

What was surprising was the appearance of the new Agassi image in the press gathering afterward. Once the subject of rock ‘n roll tennis and the object of groupies galore, a slimmer, trimmer, apparently deeper Agassi described his new approach to tennis and life.

“My time away was the most important of my life,” he said, sounding almost professorial. “I’ve been doing this since I was a little kid, when your dad hands you a racket and you go play. Then you go to an academy at age 13, you don’t go to college and soon you turn pro. You are always playing for reasons that are not long term.

“Now, I realize that tennis is a part of who I am, and it is also a platform for the obstacles that I face.”

He also said, “Image isn’t everything. Express yourself.”

Tennis Notes

Other seeded players advancing were No. 7 Todd Martin, 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 over Marcos Ondruska of South Africa; No. 10 Petra Korda of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-1 over Mark Woodforde of Australia; No. 11 Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 over Gilbert Schaller of Austria; No. 12 Alexander Volkov of Russia, 6-4, 6-4 over Jim Grabb, and No. 15 MaliVai Washington, 6-4, 6-0 over David Nainkin of South Africa. . . . Jim Courier, on the difference between this year and last year, when he won: “Last year, it was Jim with a trophy over his head. This year, it is Jim with a golf club in his hands.” . . . Courier’s record here was 16-3 going into Tuesday’s match. . . . Tuesday’s attendance, the expected new record, was 15,967. The day session was 9,966, the night 6,001. Monday’s record was 14,561.